Singer wins Grand Slam competition

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By JAN HOGAN

VIEW STAFF WRITER

It's a chance for one lucky Las Vegan to shine on stage alongside music industry mega stars.

A vocal talent contest has selected Erika Avila of Summerlin to open Andre Agassi's 11th Grand Slam for Children charity event planned for Saturday. That night, the 18-year-old Avila will take the stage and sing before 8,000 people at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The star-studded evening will include performers such as Celine Dion, Phil Collins, John Mayer, Three Doors Down and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres.

"When they called with the news, they actually called my mom's number, so we put her (Lisa-Marie Wartanzl, event coordinator) on the speaker phone," Avila said. "I was so excited when she told me I won. Now, I have to decide what to wear and all that."

The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation talent search, called the Grand Slam to Stardom, began Aug. 3 with the goal of seeking out the best undiscovered vocalist in Clark County.

After narrowing the original group of 200 contestants down to smaller and smaller numbers, the Grand Slam to Stardom ended up with a dozen semifinalists. Besides Avila, they were: Mike Bannister, 16; Mariyah Burton, 16; Princess-Junne Dinglasan, 23; Lou Gazzara, 21; Joshua Guerrero, 23; Brittany Martinez, 21; Nicole Pryor, 27; Jill Roth, 25; Anthony Valentino, 24; J.T. Aguirre, 25; and Joshua Keating, 15.

The list was pared down even further until the top three finalists were announced: Aguirre, Avila and Keating. All three live in the Summerlin area.

The three were interviewed before the contest sent them to Malibu, Calif., to perform for multi-Grammy Award-winning producer and composer David Foster at his studio. Foster is credited with discovering Josh Groban and Michael Buble and has been the producer for Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. He chose the winner.

Avila recently graduated from Sierra Vista High School with a 3.6 grade-point average and an honors diploma. At her graduation, she sang solo before a crowd of 5,000.

"The bigger the crowd, the better," she said.

She currently works in a clothing store at the Fashion Show mall.

Her first memory of singing was when she was about 4.

"My mom videotaped me singing 'A Whole New World,' " Avila said. "I sang both parts, the guy and the girl parts. Then I'd ask my mom, 'Do you want me to do it again?' "

Flash forward to high school, where classmates voted her Sierra Vista Idol her sophomore year, a take-off on "American Idol."

She was captain of the school dance team, which took first in the hip-hop division at the Nevada Silver State Competition this year.

Avila has performed at the Bootlegger Bistro as well as at charity events and weddings.

Even with such a resume, she admitted to a little bit of nerves for the contest auditions because she'd "never been in a competition where everybody was so extremely talented."

As if that wasn't enough pressure, one of the songs she chose to sing was Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing."

"The first time I sang it, they said they'd like to see me do it with a little more emotion," she said. "When I got to the top 12 and sang it again, they said I got the emotion part of it just right."

But it was the performance of her second song, "You Put a Move on My Heart," by Tamia that garnered the highest praise.

"Carlos Diaz from 'Extra' said I should be a star," she said. "He said I was 'ready to be on the red carpet.' "

In Malibu, Avila was more nervous meeting the legendary Foster than she was performing for him, she said. She sang the Tamia song for Foster, who told her she had a lot of range in her voice.

"I felt I could have done better," she said. "I got car sick on the drive there and my throat was really dry, but I didn't complain. I just did my best."

Avila has enrolled in the performing arts department at UNLV for spring but said she hopes her singing career will take off after her performance at the Grand Slam for Children event.

Growing up, Aguirre was into sports of all kinds and never gave a thought to singing. In fact, the 6-foot-tall college shortstop had never heard himself sing on a tape recorder or held a microphone before his finalist-winning performance in the contest. His interest in music began when he was 22. That's when he bought a guitar and taught himself to play. He enjoys R&B, rap, country music and classic rock and is trying his hand at writing songs.

Aguirre puts his voice to work each night while waiting tables at Rainforest Cafe, something he thinks earns him better tips.

A friend read about the contest online and urged him to enter. When Aguirre arrived to audition, he overheard other contestants speaking with the pianist.

"They'd say things like, 'I sing this in the key of C,' and I'm like, 'What are they talking about?' " he said. "You could tell all the rest of the contestants had years of experience."

When it was his turn, he was unprepared. He didn't realize, for example, that he was supposed to bring sheet music. Then he forgot the words to his song. But when he sang a cappella, something about his raw talent struck a chord with the judge. And advanced to the next round.

The next two auditions had him singing two songs Rascal Flats called "I'm Moving On" and a Maroon Five song, "Secret." This time, he knew to bring an instrumental CD to sing along to, although he was able to obtain the CDs only a couple of days beforehand.

"I couldn't play them after work because other people were sleeping," he said. "So I really only had a day to practice."

It must have been enough. Judges Clint Holmes, the Scintas, Alicia Jacobs from KVBC-TV Channel 3 news and Carlos Diaz from "Extra" put him in the top three.

"It's surreal to have people who've been in the music industry for years say to me, 'Where the hell have you been? Why are you wasting your time waiting tables?' " Aguirre said.

Born in South Florida, the youngest finalist, Keating came to Las Vegas at age 8. The following year, he began singing the national anthem at school events. It was about that time when he decided he wanted a career as a singer.

He recently turned 15 and is a sophomore at Palo Verde High School. There, he is active in music and sports. Keating is a member of the concert choir, as well as Vocal Infinity, the school's show choir.

Last winter, he played a lead role in the high school's musical production of "Footloose". He also was chosen to participate in the 2005 Clark County All-Region Honor Choir.

His father, Ken Keating, also is a singer and has a CD titled "Just One Lifetime."

Josh Keating took private voice lessons for three years. He said that when he first heard of the contest, the aspect he noticed most was that it included meeting Foster.

"It's always been my goal to meet him," he said.

Josh Keating claims that he has his own style of singing, but friends compare him to Josh Groban. For the contest, he sang "Gold" by Linda Eder, which was used in the 2002 Olympics. At the next cut, he sang "This is the Moment," from "Jekyll & Hyde."

"I knew it was a good song for me and it would show off my range," Josh Keating said.

For more information about the competition or the concert, visit www.grandslamtostardom.com.